


some shelter we've been given

by escherzo



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Other, Post-Canon, soft and domestic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:22:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29394027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escherzo/pseuds/escherzo
Summary: Cel opens the door a crack, pulling on their heavy winter coat with one arm, their limbs stiff from the cold. “Azu!” they call, hands trying to fasten buttons and adjust sleeves all at once, a jumbled mess of bundling for the cold, and by the time they have their coat and little woolen hat (one Hamid made, with a little bobble at the top) shoved on, Azu is halfway to the door. She hardly even looks cold. Her smile is every bit as radiant as Cel remembers, and when she opens her arms, Cel goes, entirely on instinct, letting themselves be scooped up into her arms and hugged tightly to her chest.“I missed you,” Azu says, keeping them carefully pressed to her chest, and they can't help but smile in return.
Relationships: Azu/Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom
Comments: 13
Kudos: 17





	some shelter we've been given

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skvadern](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skvadern/gifts).



> happy slightly belated (because timezones) birthday ♥! i hope this is sufficiently soft azu/cel for your needs

The snow outside is drifting gently down, blanketing the rooftops of the village in gentle white and leaving the whole world soft and quiet, when Azu arrives. She stands out, as she always has done; the snow kicks up around her feet as she appears out of the air, tall and glowing a bright pink so familiar it makes Cel's chest ache, and as Cel watches from the window of their little shop, she twirls around in the snow for just a moment, letting the flakes slowly settle on her coat. Her eyes are bright and shining.

Cel opens the door a crack, pulling on their heavy winter coat with one arm, their limbs stiff from the cold. “Azu!” they call, hands trying to fasten buttons and adjust sleeves all at once, a jumbled mess of bundling for the cold, and by the time they have their coat and little woolen hat (one Hamid made, with a little bobble at the top) shoved on, Azu is halfway to the door. She hardly even looks cold. Her smile is every bit as radiant as Cel remembers, and when she opens her arms, Cel goes, entirely on instinct, letting themselves be scooped up into her arms and hugged tightly to her chest. 

“I missed you,” Azu says, keeping them carefully pressed to her chest, and they can't help but smile in return. It has been a matter of weeks, not months, since they last saw each other, and Azu is always a teleportation circle away these days, but after spending so long in each other's company every day and night, even that seems like an age. Cel forgets, sometimes, how slowly the days pass when their life isn't on the line every day. 

“I missed you too,” Cel says, squeezing Azu tight and, for a long moment, just letting themselves enjoy how warm she is pressed all along their front in spite of the bitter cold of winter around them. “How's your family? Have you been back at the temple again? I want to hear everything—there's hardly anything going on in the village nowadays, not that that's a _bad_ thing exactly, it's nice that it's peaceful, but you get used to a certain level of mortal peril? And no mortal peril is good! Big fan of the lack of mortal peril. But it doesn't lead to, you know, a lot of stories.” 

“I have some stories,” Azu says, a hint of mischief in her smile, pulling back just enough to rest a hand on Cel's shoulder, as solid and grounding as ever. “But for now we should probably get inside.” 

“Oh! Of course, yes, let's get you warmed up – you must be _freezing_ by now, come on, come in.” Cel's hands are going slightly purple with the cold, and they can feel every one of their ninety eight years as they pull the door to the shop open with stiff joints. Inside, the fire crackles gently, lighting up the bits of metal and clockwork that make up the devices all over their shop in gold, and Cel busies themselves putting on water to boil and going through the ever-increasing tea tin horde. “I would get Jasper to make us some tea, but he's out right now – there's this ingredient you can only get in the winter that grows on the other side of the island, and it can make all _sorts_ of things. He's gotten quite good, honestly! I hardly ever have to catch him before he blows himself up these days, though I think he probably wants to move on and start his own apothecary one of these days -” 

“Do you think so?” Azu asks, settling into one of the chairs in the front and sighing as she begins to unfasten her coat. She's not wearing her armor today, even if the enchanted coat glows just as brightly as it ever did, and underneath her clothes are a mix of ruffled and practical, sturdy construction in a soft pink with little embellishments on the cuffs. She's been spending more time with Hamid, then. “I thought he wanted to--explore.” 

“I mean, _yes_ , but he's so young, and I don't want him to stay here just to help me if there's more of the world he wants to see, but I keep telling him that there's more to adventuring that that he might not want to sign up for—oh, now _where_ did I put the konbucha--” They fiddle with the tins; the konbucha tin is as green as the kelp it's made from, and it has two fish carefully etched onto its side, and unless it's behind-- “a- _ha_. He wants to save the world.” 

“Does he know what it was like?” Azu asks, resting her head on her arms and looking over to Cel, the contours of her face lit up by the fire. “Have you told him?”

“Some of it,” Cel says, setting two cups on the nearest surface not covered in half-constructed machine. “He knows it's... not as simple as all of that. He still wants to.” 

Azu takes her cup with a grateful smile, wrapping both hands around it to let the warmth seep into her palms. “I was the same way,” she says, glancing over to Cel with a soft, nostalgic smile as Cel settles down into the chair beside her. “I don't think I knew as much about what it was like, but...” She trails off, looking out the window, where the snow is still gently falling, blanketing the world in white. The only sound, for a long moment, is the crackling of the fire behind them, the world around them gone quiet. 

“But enough about Jasper for now,” Cel says, resting a hand over Azu's to break her out of her thoughts. “Tell me about how everyone is doing? I don't travel nearly as much as you these days, and I keep meaning to, but there's always something to keep an eye on here.” 

“I saw Hamid last week,” Azu says, and she squeezes Cel's hand. “He won't stay on the ground at all, now that he has his wings.” She grins. “He's happy. We went into Cairo—did I ever tell you about the bar fight in Cairo?” 

Cel takes a long sip of tea, closing their eyes to savor it as the warmth seeps into their bones. “When did _you_ get in a bar fight?” 

“It's where we met Carter,” Azu clarifies, and Cel snorts without meaning to. “So Grizzop and I—” 

One cup of tea becomes two, becomes three, and the afternoon slowly winds away as the two of them share stories, safe and warm inside as the world outside goes bitter cold. 

*

Afternoon slips away into evening, and Cel gives Azu one last affectionate squeeze before getting up and starting to look through the stores in the tiny kitchen attached to the shop. It seems like it gets to be as big of a mess as their workshop if they leave it unattended for longer than a moment, a jumble of roots and rice and dried herbs and fish—even when there is nothing else, there is always fish—but it is homey in its own way. A tiny little pantry filled with all of the smells of the life they have made for themselves here. 

“Jasper isn't back yet,” Azu says, coming up from behind them as they start gathering ingredients into their arms. “Should we worry?”

“Oh, I don't think so,” Cel says, and they would gesture dismissively if they had the spare hands to do it with. “Can you get the eggs? He said he'd probably head home if he was coming back too late – he wasn't working on anything _dangerous_ , and there's not really anything out on that side of the island, unless he went out into the water for some reason, but the water is _freezing_ right now, so—oh, get the daikon too, if you can?” They gesture to one of the smaller barrels in the corner, which is piled high with radishes from the last summer's harvest. 

“What are we making?” Azu asks, looking it over with a critical eye before scooping it up into one hand, testing its weight. 

“Oden! I'm not much of a cook, that's what I've got Jasper for, really, that and teaching him how to do the things I _am_ good at – but it's a stew. It's not really... fancy, I suppose? But it'll keep you warm, and it seems like that might be more what we're going for right now.” 

“Alright,” Azu says, smiling as Cel starts to arrange all of the ingredients on the counter and direct her to start chopping. “I can help.” 

It's domestic in a way that the two of them have never really had a moment for, before now; Cel directs and makes fish cakes and mutters unflattering things at them as they sputter and burn, just a little, and Azu laughs and cuts vegetables and bumps her shoulder against Cel's companionably, watching as the broth and assortment of bits and pieces starts to come together into a cohesive whole. Making something out of nothing. 

“Did you cook much at home?” Cel asks, taking a speculative sip of the broth and then pouring a bit more sake in. 

“A little,” Azu says, cracking one of the hard-boiled eggs against the counter carefully and making a small, distressed noise as it dents more than just cracks. “My mother taught me some, but I was never very good at it. She used to make huge pots of rice for everyone, with broth and vegetables, and on special occasions there was goat in it.” She smiles at the memory. “We didn't have many goats in the village. But it was important to celebrate when there was reason to do it.” 

“We could make that sometime,” Cel says, dipping a spoon into the broth again and holding it out to Azu for inspection. Azu closes her eyes and blows on it to cool it, and Cel's eyes track the way her full lips purse without meaning to. She takes a careful sip and closes her eyes, letting the taste linger on her tongue.

“It's good,” she confirms, and Cel smiles. 

*

“I think it's stopped snowing,” Azu says, looking up halfway through a bite of her stew. She has a small amount remaining pooled in the bottom of her bowl but Cel has long since hit their limit, their belly heavy with the warmth and pleasure of a solid winter's meal. They look up towards the window; the sky is beginning to clear, bringing with it the promise of a frigid night, but as the clouds fade away, the stars are beginning to come out over the ocean, a blanket of jewels in the heavy dark as the night falls. 

“Do you want to go out and see it when you're done?” Cel asks, and Azu hesitates, looking for a moment at their coats, hanging neatly in a line by the front door, before nodding. “I'll get some blankets for us to wrap up in.” 

“Cel,” Azu says, catching their hand before they can get up properly. They aren't used to Azu looking _shy_ , but she does in this moment, her eyes darting away from Cel's and then back to them, a little smile on her face. “Thank you for dinner.” 

“You're welcome,” Cel says, squeezing her hand and marveling, as though it is the first time, how big and solid it is. Her grip as comfortingly reliable as the rest of her. 

“I--” Azu swallows. “Can I kiss you?” she asks all at once, and Cel can't help but grin. 

“Of course,” Cel says, and braces a hand on the table as they lean down to catch Azu's lips gently. Her lips are soft and warm, and she opens her mouth just a little, sighing against Cel's lips as they fit together sweet and easy. Cel lets the kiss linger for a moment, a little curl of electricity between the two of them, and as they pull away they could swear that, just for a second, Azu's lips glow a faint pink. 

“I'll get the blankets,” Cel says, smiling down at her. She still has a bit of stew to finish. The rest can wait for later. 

*

The clouds have faded away to wisps as the two of them settle against the front door of Cel's shop, bundled in three different blankets draped across their shoulders as they huddle together for warmth. Azu is warm against Cel's side, Cel's arm tucked around her waist, and she sighs, contented, tipping her head back a little against the door as she gazes up into the sky. 

“It's so clear here,” she says softly, a little cloud of breath floating up into the air as she speaks. “It reminds me of home.” 

“It's one of my favorite parts of being here,” Cel says. “Looking out at the stars over the ocean, it feels like everything goes on forever, and it's so easy to just—let yourself feel small, if that makes sense? Sometimes I forget, when it's just me and Jasper and the shop, that even as old as I feel there's a world out there that's so much older than I'll ever be. That I could just keep traveling into it forever and I don't know if I would ever find an end. Is it weird to find that comforting?” 

Azu snuggles in a little closer to Cel. “I don't think so,” she says. “When I was still living in my village, one of the things I liked the most was how I could climb up and look out over everything. It's so high up; you feel so close to the sky and so small.” She rests her free hand over her chest, where her symbol of Aphrodite hangs underneath her shirt, Cel knows. “I always hoped that there was something looking back down at me.” 

“And you found something,” Cel says, eyes tracing the constellations. 

“I did,” Azu says, and her smile is something so soft and private and _good_ that it makes Cel's heart hurt just to look at it. Makes them wish, just for a moment, for that kind of connection to call their own. 

But they have a little piece of it, through her, all the same. For a moment, they let themselves sit with the thought, taking in the stillness of the world around them, the gently snow-topped houses around them and the faint chatter they can hear within the only promise that they are not the only people left in the world. All around, the dusting of snow on the ground turns the world bright, even on a moonless night like this one, and Cel lets out a long breath, watching the way the white of it drift away on the gentle breeze blowing in from the ocean. 

“Tell me about how you found this village?” Azu asks, after a little while. She leans her head on Cel's shoulder. 

Cel smiles, and the words come easy. About the early days, about traveling here with their husband on his ship and finding a community that desperately needed someone, someone who was there to help in a way that didn't have to involve death, and the promise of that had made them stay after their husband passed and they were adrift. 

“They're good people,” Cel says quietly, looking out over the village again. “More than I deserved.” 

“ _You_ are a good person,” Azu says, quiet and fierce, and Cel smiles a little. “Thank you for telling me about it. I'm... I'm glad to know they are good.” It's hard, hearing it and trying to believe it, but it helps, at least, to know that Azu does. 

“We should go in,” Cel says finally. The night is growing colder, turning to a bitter chill even though the three blankets, and they can feel the ache in their bones. “Do you want--” Being straightforward has served them well in the past, and as they think of settling in for the night with Azu, they can't help but think of the kiss earlier, the gentle press of Azu's lips against theirs. “You can stay the night here with me.” 

“There is only one bed,” Azu says after a pause, glancing over to Cel, cheeks reddened by more than just the cold. “If—that's alright?” 

“Well,” Cel says, gathering the blankets up around the two of them and getting to their feet. “It was an offer to share it? So, yes.” They lean in and kiss Azu's cheek softly, and Azu's eyes go very wide. 

“Oh. _Oh._ ” 

“I also have a futon, if you'd rather not, it's--” Cel offers, halfway through a sentence before Azu takes them by the hand and nearly drags them through the front door.

*

Azu is beautiful. Cel has always known this, on some level, but as she stands lit by the gentle warmth of the fireplace in Cel's room and slowly unbuttons her shirt, revealing the delicate, lacy underthings underneath that cup her full breasts, a little half-smile on her lips, Cel is reminded more than ever. Every bit of her makes Cel want to _touch_ , as Azu's shirt falls away, but they are trying to be be patient. Letting Azu set the pace of this as much as she needs to. Azu unlaces her trousers and lets them fall to her knees, and she laughs a little as she half-trips over them when stepping out. Cel can't help but grin back. She is so beautiful, and so big, and every bit of this reminds Cel of how much Azu is still the same person they grew to be so fond of, over all of those months of traveling together.

Cel makes short work of their clothes; they are made to be gotten out of quickly, in case of chemical spills, and they unlace as fast as their hands, still stiff with cold, will allow. Azu has already settled onto the bed, looking over at them expectantly with a hand curling over the swell of her stomach, and no chemical burn has ever made Cel hurry like this before. 

“You look--” Cel starts, but for once, it seems easier to communicate by touch rather than with words, and so they clamber onto the bed beside Azu, watching the way her hand has started to slowly play with the waistband of her underclothes. “Can I?” 

“Of course,” Azu says, and they reach out for each other at the same time. It is a careful exploration at first, Cel learning the shape of Azu, the way her breath comes short when Cel pulls her into a kiss and lets their teeth linger at her lip, the little knotted scar on her shoulder, the way one of her breasts is slightly larger than the other, and she makes such lovely little plaintive noises when Cel dips down to scrape teeth gently across a nipple. 

She is covered in scars, the marks of a life thoroughly lived, and, one by one, Cel kisses them, running their tongue along the long, white mark along their side, the deep starburst of a puncture at their thigh. Letting their teeth sink into the curve of her thigh to follow it and listening for the way her breath hitches. There is a sensitive place at the crook of her neck that makes her cry out. Running gentle fingers along the inside of her arm makes her shudder. Cupping her arse with both hands and rocking into her, just enough to feel the pressure of it, makes her whisper Cel's name like a prayer. This is a new experiment, and they intend to get thorough data. 

They slip their fingers between Azu's legs, where she is wet and aching, and it takes nothing at all to slip two fingers inside her cunt, Cel's thumb working at her clit as they curl their long fingers inside her. She makes soft little noises with every movement, going louder, wilder, as Cel gives her a third, fucking into her quick and dirty, giving her pressure to rut against and a solid weight inside her, and she goes perfectly still for a long, aching moment, her voice rising and cracking as she tenses and then pulses around Cel's fingers, her head tipped back. For a moment she's not even breathing. Cel grins down at her, and then Azu reaches out with both hands and pulls them close. 

The two of them sink into a long, lingering kiss, Azu's lips hot against Cel's, her tongue curling around Cel's, a gentle scrape of her tusks against Cel's lips all at once electric and a sudden, fond reminder of their husband. They close their eyes and cup the back of Azu's head, keeping her close, long fingers playing with the curve of her ear, and then when they make to touch again Azu pins them to the bed with both hands. 

They are very aware that Azu is strong, but they have never been more intimately reminded of it than in this moment. All of the breath leaves their lungs in a rush, and a curl of heat twists in their belly at how easily Azu can hold them down. At, even at nearly the same height, just how much _bigger_ than them she is. 

“Let me,” Azu says, and maps the marks of their own life. The burns from their early days as an alchemist. The way the skin stretches wrong in patches from failed transformations and the one more intentional body modification at their chest, the lingering impressions of knives and axes and explosion shrapnel. Azu's lips trail hot from one scar to another with a soft, contented little sound, and Cel shudders under her attention. They ache to the core of them, wanting something more, but unable to do anything but let Azu bestow this worship upon them. 

Her whole body is glowing ever so faintly pink. Cel isn't sure she's noticed. 

Azu slides down Cel's underclothes with gentle hands and spreads their thighs, her hands easily cupping the width of them and keeping them in place, and all Cel can do is close their eyes and hold onto the sheets as Azu leans down to lick at the core of them, her long, clever tongue finding the shape of Cel's clit and flicking over it, over and over, until Cel is panting, working their hips back against Azu's face. She lets go of Cel's thigh to slip a finger inside them, slow and steady and _thick_ , so thick, and Cel is lost in the sweet stretch of it for a long moment. 

“Azu,” Cel manages, moaning out a plea for more, and Azu pulls off just enough to smile.

“Yes?” she asks, as though she has not already brought Cel nearly to the brink, as though what she is doing is entirely innocent, and she is _not moving_ , and it is all Cel can do to keep from begging. But Azu is, ultimately, more merciful than Cel has ever been able to manage, and she doesn't torture them for long; she licks her lips, looking down at Cel again, and then goes back to eating Cel out with enough enthusiasm that Cel is knocked entirely breathless with it. 

It takes nothing at all to tip them over the edge, and Azu works them through it, slipping another finger into the slick mess between their thighs to give them something to clench around as they shudder through the aftershocks. 

Cel sighs, a long, contented thing, tipping their head back onto the pillow. “Do you want--” Cel offers, and glances over to the small box on a shelf beside the bed. 

“What's in there?” Azu asks, and when Cel's legs no longer feel like absolute jelly, they make themselves get up and retrieve it. The harness is easy enough to demonstrate, custom-made leather and buttery-soft, designed for Cel's shape but adjustable, and Azu lets out a little startled huff of a laugh when she sees that one of the things designed to go inside it is shaped like an orc's cock. 

“I missed my husband,” Cel says, unabashed, and Azu takes it out of the box to feel the weight of it. The way it curves slightly, the thickness at the base, the small ridges that go from base to tip. “I'm also open to doing—anything else you want, I'm not picky, and I have had a _lot_ of practice.” 

“I want to use it on you,” Azu says all at once, blunt as anything, and Cel's smile widens. 

“Right, okay, let's get you into the harness, then,” Cel says, and they made it to be adjustable, but it very nearly doesn't fit Azu, with how thick her thighs are. It started out being Cel's size – the last time it was worn was when Barnes came to visit, about a month ago, but it stretches, and when Cel fits the toy into place Azu closes her eyes and bites her lip at the pressure against her. 

“Turn around.” Azu's voice is low and intent, and Cel wants Azu inside them so badly they ache with it. They turn around obediently, tilting their hips up, and it takes a few false starts, Azu teasing at Cel's hole with the toy and slipping out, but then her hands come up to grip Cel's hips hard and adjust the angle and all at once it's sinking inside. It's a long, slow slide, and Cel can't help the deep, satisfied moan at the sensation of being so thoroughly filled. 

“You look--” Azu's voice is shaky, and when Cel looks over their shoulder, Azu's eyes are fixed at where the toy sinks into them, at the way it nearly looks like it's part of her body. “ _Oh._ ” 

“I know, it... can be a lot,” Cel says, closing their eyes as Azu grips their hips harder and rocking experimentally back against the toy. The stretch aches, distantly, but it's drowned out by the overwhelming crush of sensation of being filled. Of how _big_ Azu feels in them, of the way Azu's hands on their hips could still them completely or pull them back onto the toy, and they aren't strong enough to do anything but grip tight to the sheets and take it. Azu is gentle at first, because her first instinct is always caretaking, but she works up to a hard rhythm fast when Cel starts working back against the toy, trying to get it deeper, trying to take more. 

“I didn't--” Azu takes a deep breath, her body curving over Cel's, pressing deeper. “I knew this was something that people could do. Something people did at the temple, sometimes. I didn't think it would feel like _this_.” 

“The people at your temple have the right idea,” Cel says with a grin, the tail end of their sentence trailing off into a moan as Azu gets the angle just right. Azu's carefully preserved control is slipping, and Cel wants nothing more in the moment than to be pinned entirely by her, wants to feel what it's like when she actually loses control. 

Cel has seen Azu work out for an hour straight without breaking a sweat; they are very aware in the moment just how long Azu could keep doing this for. And it does seem like it goes on forever, an endless wave of sensation that tips to a peak more times than Cel's hazy mind can keep track of, Azu surrounding her, filling her, the central point of her universe for this bright, agonizingly good moment. They think, at some point, that they may be begging, but they have lost the ability to pay attention to the words coming out of their mouth. 

“Too much,” they say finally, slumping to the bed, their spine still curved obscenely, and Azu gives one last, lingering thrust, a hand running down the sweat-slicked curve of their spine before pulling out. 

“Good?” she asks, as though she doesn't know, and Cel can't help but laugh, fucked-out and full of endorphins. 

“Yes,” they manage, finally, sprawled out onto the bed, every part of their body unwilling to move. Azu collapses beside them and starts trying to wriggle out of the harness and then gets stuck partway through, and Cel has to push themselves up onto an elbow and help, still smiling without even meaning to, their face bright red. 

“It's a good invention,” Azu allows, looking down at the harness once she has finally extricated herself from it. “I... think it may be a bit small for me, though.”

“I can make you one,” Cel offers, tipping their head back against the pillow. “There's--” They're having trouble so much as forming _words_ , but they wave a hand towards the trunk at the foot of the bed. “Sheets in there.” Every part of them deeply wants to collapse into sleep, but it's too cold to be sleeping in a wet spot, and they gave up putting themselves through that a good thirty years ago. Azu might have to roll them out of the bed to actually change the sheets, though. 

“So,” Cel begins as they finally force themselves back to their feet, “do you know that you're still glowing?” Azu is; the pink glow that surrounds her naked body is slowly fading away, but in the low light of the room it is still eminently visible. Azu looks down at herself, her hands full of sheets, and goes very still for a long moment. 

“Oh,” she says, soft and reverent, her smile growing until it looks like it nearly hurts. “I didn't.” She steals a quick glance upwards, as if to say, _thank you_.

“I think she likes you,” Azu says, later, when the two of them are wrapped around each other, back to front, keeping close to ward off the chill under a pile of blankets. The fire crackles gently in the quiet of the room, and Azu's hands, wrapped around their middle, are as big and comforting as they've always been. There is a safety in her solidity. 

“I think... I think she just—likes when you're happy,” Cel says, and they can feel Azu's answering smile against their skin. 

“I want you to be happy too,” Azu says. “Happy and at peace.”

They think of the village they will wake up to, where everyone knows and trusts them, where they are a part of a whole. Of waking up in Azu's arms, knowing that they can take their time without the world ending. Of the endless expanse of the night sky and the sea, stretching out as far as they can see, and the comfort in knowing how small they are in comparison. How much the whole world no longer rests on their shoulders. 

“I'm getting there,” Cel says.


End file.
